A New Life
by Lily Vendrem
Summary: AU one-shot. Roxas dislikes dances and Namine is friendly. AxelxRoxas slash, take it as you like. Nothing graphic.


Roxas sighed, wiped the condensation off his cup, and shook the water off his hand. He couldn't, for the life of him, remember why he was here. He was new to the school, new to the entire town. He didn't know anyone here, and the result of such was that he was all alone and SO not having fun.

The quick beat of the music was pounding in his chest. Under normal circumstances, he would have enjoyed the vibration in his ribcage, but every time he relaxed, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled causing him to shiver and tense. It was going to drive him crazy, he was sure.

With another sigh, Roxas looked around the room from his small table. Students were dancing a little way off, all enjoying themselves, laughing with friends, kissing their partners, having a good time in general. The blond almost wished he was more like his cousin, Sora. Sora wouldn't have just sat here, oh no, he would have jumped straight into that crowd and made friends with whoever he laid eyes on.

"Too bad I'm just me..." he muttered to his drink. The soda happily fizzed in reply, and Roxas glared at it. He gave it a light swirl to get the liquid rotating and watched the colors distort and mix on the surface of the drink and ice cubes.

He vaguely noticed the song change as he glanced at his watch. 8:27 p.m. flashed soft purple from digital face, and Roxas sighed once again. Two and a half more hours before anyone would be able to come pick him up, and there was no way he was going to call a cab. Who knew what kind of crazy drivers the people in this town were?

Roxas set his cup down on the table before propping an elbow upon the surface and laid his cheek in his palm to watch the crowd. The flashing lights weren't flashing now, and a slow song was playing; a few people were still on the floor, but the majority were getting drinks or sitting down for a breather. Roxas' gaze idled over a group on the other side of the auditorium. There were six from what he could see, and two of them he recognized as teachers, but they seemed to fit right in with the others.

The two sitting directly facing him made him do a double-take. The first was a blond with a weird mullet/mohawk hair style, who was laughing, and the second was a tall, lanky redhead. It wasn't the fact that the two boys looked completely outrageous, what with their hair and mixed accessory items that caught his attention, however. Roxas figured they were both probably over a foot taller than him each, but that wasn't what caught his attention either. The fact that they were holding hands so openly surprised him. Back in Twilight Town, two guys just didn't do that sort of thing. It was considered wrong in that close-minded community and seeing it now made Roxas both elated and frightened.

The teen snapped out of his thoughts when an uncomfortable prickling sensation on the back of his neck told him he was being watched, and when he re-focused on the group before him, he was shocked to see the redhead staring back at him, venom green eyes glinting. He was certain eyes weren't supposed to glow that way and how did he know they were green from this distance anyway? Roxas flushed brightly and averted his stare, ducking down slightly as though that would hide him from the others' hard gaze.

When he finally had the courage to look back at the group nearly an hour later, the redhead was gone, and the eccentric blond was clinging to the pink haired boy/girl (Roxas couldn't decide from this distance) on his right, seemingly whining.

Someone tapped lightly on his shoulder, and a glance to the side showed a timid blond girl in a knee length white dress.

"U-umm… Hello," she said, hands clasped in front of her daintily. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting you, but… You looked rather lonely, so I thought I might talk to you."

Roxas blinked in surprise, but quickly pushed out the chair next to him with his foot and smiled invitingly. "You're not interrupting me. My name is Roxas. Who are you?"

She smiled back and sat down. "I-I'm Naminé . It's nice to meet you, Roxas." They shook hands and sat in silence for a moment before Roxas' manners caught up with his confused brain, and he offered to get her a drink. She politely accepted and he stood and made his way over to the snack tables, throwing his old cup away in a nearby trash bin.

He had just made it to the table when he caught sight of bright red to his far right and his eyes immediately focused on it, although he wasn't stupid enough to turn his head. Sure enough, there was the redhead from before, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. Roxas tore his eyes away while he still had some sense left and made quick work of getting his and Naminé's drinks, then turned and left without another glance in the older boy's direction.

Back at the table, Naminé had pulled a little doodle pad out of her purse and was quickly sketching something out. The look on her face, Roxas would later say, was purely inspirational as he set down their drinks and reclaimed his seat. She welcomed him back and thanked him for the drink, but he could tell she was distracted by whatever it was she was doing, so he left her to it and went back to staring at the other people in the room. Every so often, in between the scratching of pencil on paper, Naminé would turn the page, beginning a new picture, or sometimes going back to remake some part on a previous picture. This went on for nearly twenty minutes before she sat back, satisfied. Reaching out, she closed the book and placed it and the pencil back in her purse, then turned an apologetic smile on Roxas.

"Ah... Sorry, I just had a really good idea, and I couldn't wait to get it down… I didn't mean to be rude."

"Its fine, I understand. I get like that sometimes with my writing, don't worry about it. Maybe I'll get to see what you were drawing sometime?" he asked with a warm smile.

The petite girl flushed happily. "Sure! I'd love to show you!" she said eagerly. As an afterthought, she added, "But I want to take it home and clean it up first."

"Okay," Roxas said agreeably.

They sat in silence for a few seconds afterwards; to keep the conversation going, Naminé spoke again. "So, you're new here, right?"

"Yeah, I just moved here from Twilight Town about two weeks ago."

"Ooh. Was it nice there?"

"Eh... I guess. Not really as big as Radiant Garden, but it wasn't bad, I suppose. Hey Namine? Can I ask you a question?"

Naminé blinked and nodded.

"What do people here think of gay relationships?"

The girl laughed, honestly amused. "I knew it… All the cute ones are gay. Homosexual relationships are generally accepted around here. You don't have to hide from us."

Roxas gave a relieved sigh, and then frowned. "What do you mean, 'I knew it'?"

"Silly, I could tell you were gay." Roxas opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head quickly. "I don't mean that it's obvious, but it's really easy to tell if you know what you're looking for. Plus both of my brothers are gay."

Roxas closed his mouth and one eye, peering at her suspiciously through the other. "Hmm...," he said, as though it would make the girl tell the truths of the universe to him.

A laugh was all he received for his efforts, then a lazily waved hand in the general direction of the other side of the hall. "My oldest brother, Demyx, is over there, if you don't believe me."

Roxas looked, although he knew he wouldn't be able to recognize the mentioned boy. Naminé was quick to point him out, however, and the shock of realizing it was the blond boy he had been watching before was visible on his features. The girl caught the reaction and frowned slightly. "Do you know him?"

"What..? No, I don't know him. I just… I mean – I was watching him. Earlier, before you showed up. Not really watching, just looking, I couldn't help it, he was holding hands with another boy, and I was just surprised..." Roxas trailed off, looking back at the table. To his surprise, Naminé snorted. A rather unlady-like gesture, but she didn't seem to have been able to control it, although she did cover the lower half of her face in embarrassment. At his arched eyebrow, she waved her free hand dismissively.

"Another boy, you say? Rather tall, skinny, red hair?"

"Er. Yeah. Was that his boyfriend?" The word was caused a sort of queasy feeling in Roxas' adjusting mind, but he ignored it.

When she shook her head, Roxas tipped his own to the side in silent question. "They're just friends, Demyx and Axel. Dem's just very clingy; he likes to always be in contact with someone. He's always been that way. But he and Axel just don't... click. You know?"

Roxas didn't, because he had never so much as talked to either of the boys, but he nodded anyway so she could get on with her point.

Naminé rolled her eyes and decided to spare him the 'suffering' of not knowing. "Right well, Demyx is like... Like water, he's really calm. Really soothing most of the time. Up-beat, and laid back. Where-as Axel, the redhead? He's like fire. Always on the move, always burning into anyone and anything he comes in contact with. Leaving a mark, so everyone knows he's been there." Here, Naminé sighed deeply. "Sometimes I wonder if he'll ever be able to find someone to mellow him out a bit. I hope so."

Roxas blinked. "Oh." The explanations fit the two boys, from the way Roxas had seen them. Demyx would be the one holding down the fort, and Axel would be burning it. They wouldn't mix properly. "Well I guess that makes sense. That's actually kind of too bad though. The way your brother was touching Axel, he really seemed like he enjoyed his company... that way."

"Oh, certainly. Demyx would _love_ to be with Axel. He may be a bit dense, but he's not stupid. He knows it wouldn't work, and it'd put a strain on their friendship. Dem wouldn't want that."

"It'd be terrible..." The blond boy trailed off, thinking of his last school, and all his friends there. 'What I thought were my friends. Who needs them anyway?'

"Did something like that happen to you, Roxas?" Naminé inquired softly, touching his arm.

"Eh. It's not important. Just stupid Twilight Town ways."

Roxas nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand came to rest on his shoulder, presence light and calm, but somehow burning. The look on Naminé's face told him something serious was up, so he steeled his nerves and turned in his seat to face the mystery person. Who he saw made him nearly drop dead on the spot, but out of fright or honest surprise, he wasn't sure.

There, in all his flamboyant glory, was Axel, jacket unbuttoned, shirt untucked, tie missing, and cocky smirk projected like a fireworks finale.

The smirk widened and Axel extended his hand. "The name's Axel, A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"

Roxas stared dumbfounded for a moment and almost said something along the lines of 'Before you even came over.', but stopped himself. He shook the other's hand instead, and said, "I'm Roxas. It's nice to meet you."

Axel's smirk shifted into something almost like a smile as he tightened his grip on the blond's hand; he gestured with his free hand towards the dance floor. "May I have this dance?"

Roxas was up before he had even thought about it, and with a nervous wave to Naminé, he was dragged away for a rather embarrassing but fun dance with the crazy red head.

* * *

A couple of months later, after he had agreed to be Axel's boyfriend, he remembered the first night, at that dance, when Namine had been drawing, and decided to ask her about it. What she showed him and Axel was surprising in that it was the exact events that had happened that evening. What was more surprising was that Roxas somehow knew, even though he had no proof and didn't really believe in such things as writing the future or anything like that, that she had drawn those pictures before any of it happened.

* * *

OMGzorz, I know, I know. Finally did something else for Kingdom Hearts. I just kind of… lost interest after a while. Transformers, haha. You wouldn't believe… But anyway, I imagine I'll have a few other things done in the future, have a lot of unfinished stuff. Anyway, as always, feedback is love, and I enjoy constructive criticism, so don't be afraid to point out an inconsistency or something. Hope you enjoyed!


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